Using NHS data from 245 trusts for the past two years, the documentary calculated that around £100m a year is spent looking after patients who cannot be discharged because social care to care for them at home has not been arranged.

Speaking of budget cuts, Prof Willett said: “There's bound to be a consequence. Social care and local authorities have taken a significant reduction. We need to join the services up and one of the key things we have to do is to bring the doctors, the nurses, the social workers back together.

Related Articles

He also condemned the target culture within the NHS as “too crude” and “too blunt” an instrument but said targets should not be dropped until something better was in place/

Dr Cliff Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E doctors nationally, said the recruitment crisis in A&E is so severe he feared a time will come when there will be no doctors to treat arrivals at A&E.

The £100 million figure was calculated using NHS data from 245 trusts for the past two years.